


Coming Out (Gets Weirdly Easier as Time Goes On)

by GlitterFairy_21225



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves Friendship, Canon Non-Binary Character, Coming Out, Dysfunctional Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Good Brother Diego Hargreeves, Good Brother Luther Hargreeves, Good Sister Allison Hargreeves, Humor, Implied Sexual Content, Just jokes about incest, No Incest, Non-Binary Klaus Hargreeves, Pansexual Klaus Hargreeves, Protective Diego Hargreeves, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-27 12:26:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20046010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlitterFairy_21225/pseuds/GlitterFairy_21225
Summary: LGBTQ+ Hargreeves are to be prideful. Even if takes awhile to get there. It might take awhile to get there.Every time Klaus comes out to his one siblings in order.





	Coming Out (Gets Weirdly Easier as Time Goes On)

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I started writing this months ago, and forgot about for awhile, and in that time I realized Klaus probably didn’t need to come out, they probably already knew when he started wearing heels and skirts. 
> 
> But this is cute, so whatever.

**1\. Allison**

Klaus stares out his window, observing his siblings' recreational time. His brothers were currently in a two-on-two basketball game, with Mom as their referee and Allison as Luther's gross cheerleader. He wasn't sure where Vanya was, but it wasn't her room, and that was enough for him.

He had a mission. A weird, horrible, one-time mission. Steal his sister's makeup.

He prays Allison never catches him. God have mercy on the poor soul who gets Allison Hargreeves angry. He and Allison have never been close. Not that it was like it was Him v Her. It's just that Luther and Diego fight too much, and neither him nor her truly care who is right and wrong during their fights. The fact of the matter is that his loyalties simply lay with Diego and hers with Luther.

And that latter fact quickly turned Diego against her. Calling her names like entitled brat, or Luther's lapdog. According to Diego, Allison only cares about herself and Luther, and though Klaus can clearly think of plenty of times when she'd look after one of the lower numbers, Diego says she's mean and Diego is never wrong.

He enters her room, cursing the fact that his siblings were playing on the other side of the mansion, so he couldn't know if he was safe. Still, he gets lost in his sister's world of makeup, unsure where to start or what to do. Klaus grabs a pair of her ruby red earrings, stroking it with his fingers.

"What do you think you're doing!?" A sharp voice booms, and he jumps, spinning around. Allison is angry when he turns, but she softens when she sees his guilt-ridden face. Her eyes shift to her makeup and a look of realization crosses her face.

"Do you like earrings?" Allison's eyes narrow. Klaus nods in shame. "Sit down Number Four." She commands and he obeys. She strides over to him, but reaches for her jewelry box.

"Okay, these are clip-ons." She holds up two bright blue earrings. "Do you wanna try them on?" Klaus's eyes widen. Was this a trick? Some kind of extensive, special punishment for touching her things? But she takes his silence as a yes, and clips them on his ears for him.

Then, Allison grabs a makeup set. She seems to be debating between a jar of black goo and eyeshadow, but her eyes keep shifting back to his face.

"Okay, I’m thinking mascara could be complimenting." Allison grabs a brush and dabs it. "At least for a trial. Hold still."

She begins to apply makeup to his face and Klaus just sits up straight. Nervousness building in his belly. A part of him wonders if she was going to give him a complete makeover, then force him out in front of their brothers, but he doesn't stop her. Not when it feels so right.

"Is something wrong with me?" Klaus whispers, looking down.

Allison sighs and grabs the blush. "I don't know.... I know our other brothers wouldn't be caught dead in makeup. So you're obviously not.... you're obviously different. But I'm not sure it has to be something wrong." She says grabbing lip gloss from her makeup set.

"What do you mean?" He asks confused.

"Like.... sometimes I watch these drag races during television time."

"Drag races?" Klaus wrinkles his forehead. How random. There was so much about that one statement that caught him off-guard. "Really? You don't seem the type."

Allison rolls her eyes. "Not that silly race car stuff. Pucker your lips." He does. "Fashion shows!" She smiles. "But with boys, well, not really boys, they were born boys but they dress like girls. They say they're Queens, and they're so amazing."

"Really?" Klaus says with wide eyes.

"Yeah!" Allison smiles at him. "They also have really heavy eyeshadow, but I'd have to use everything I have for that, and we just got our monthly possession requests, so I'm just going for a princess look."

She begins the eyeshadow, rambling about various techniques of application for a few minutes before stopping and biting her lips. "So, um, are you like... a girl? Like.... is it like if I were born in a boy body?"Allison grimaces at her own analogy, Klaus wasn't sure it was at the thought of being born in the wrong body, or just not sure if that was the right thing to say.

"A girl?" Klaus stares deep into his reflection. It felt so right be in makeup and this skirt. But did it feel right to call himself a girl? "I don't know. It doesn't seem.... I don't think so?" He phrased it like a question, which it was.

Allison nods, not quite understanding what was wrong with Klaus herself. "That's okay I guess, just tell me if you figure it out. I'd literally die for a cool sister. Vanya thinks Pogo's button-ups are fashionable! On a girl!" She rolls her eyes and Klaus scoffs. And then they look at each other and start giggling. And then they start on the nails, and Klaus revels in the feeling of just hanging out and doing all the stuff he had secretly longed to do for so long. And with his sister!

"You know, Luther thinks you're too whiny to hang with us, but you're really fun to play with!" Allison exclaims and Klaus smiles at her.

"What are you doing?" They jumped at the accusing voice behind them. No. No. Diego could not know about this! What would he think? Diego was really going for ultra manhood to make Dad proud. What if Diego gets mad at him for not being strong and manly like him?

He opens his mouth but no words come out. His eyes shift between Diego to Allison to Diego again, at a loss for what to do.

"I needed to test all this makeup so I know how to apply it on myself." Allison saves him. "Klaus is such a good model for me! Look at him! He's gorgeous."

Klaus can't stop himself at beaming under her praise. Unfortunately, Diego doesn't seem to see it that way and yanks him to the bathroom, glaring at her. Klaus meets her eyes and sends her a silent thanks. She nods in return.

"You don't need to pretend to be into this girly shit to get her attention." Diego tells him as he wipes the mascara off for him.

Klaus nods somberly. It's for the best. Diego clearly likes brothers more than sisters, if the way he talks to Allison and Vanya are anything to go by. He even goes so far as to label Luther as another sister. Klaus couldn't stand it if Diego treated him like that. Klaus might love the feeling of blush on his cheeks and gloss on his lips, but he loves Diego even more.

He changes back into shorts and returns the skirts to Allison's door, before letting Diego drag him away to play sports and boyish outdoors shit. He loses a race but ends up tackling Diego into a dead heap pile that they don't move from because it's really just cuddling with his big brother but Diego will leave if he calls it that. And Klaus promises himself that he will never, ever, go back to the fairy lights and perfume scents of Allison's room.

He does.

In fact, he goes back a lot. Within a year it becomes a three-to-four night a week occurrence. At first they do it secretly and stealthily, and then it's an open secret for awhile and at some point it's just a thing two of their siblings like to do. His brothers are more surprised by his odd friendship with Allison than disgusted by his love of makeup. He even gets fairy lights for their birthday.

Then the Umbrella Academy gets interviewed a female reporter with long legs, red lips, emerald eyes, and while Klaus is a gentleman (woman? Who knows), any idiot could see she had incredibly large cleavage. While Ben fails to hide his blush, Allison gets pissed off, and everyone else seems embarrassed, Klaus just stares. A lot. It gets the attention of a few magazines.

Afterwards, when their microphones are off, he leans over to Allison and for once, whispers low enough that no one can hear him. "Okay, I need to rethink some stuff."

He needed rethink a lot of stuff. Over, and over, and over again. And it was exhausting.

Nevertheless, in giving in to his burning, dirty temptation, Klaus not only managed to turn his daydreams into a weekly activity, he also managed to make a new friend. So he was happy.

**2\. Luther**

Water's pouring in by the minute. And they were in a submarine. It was supposed to be an easy mission, in-and-out, Klaus was the lookout, it should have been simple. It wasn't. It was a disaster. And somehow, Klaus and Luther end up alone, in a broken submarine, that won't start up and move and is running out of oxygen. Don't ask Klaus how, he wasn't paying attention.

"Diego can breathe underwater, he'll save us, I know he will." Klaus says assuredly. Luther rolls his eyes at the faith he put in Diego, but still nods. It was a funny look.

Time passes, and Luther mostly ignores him in favor of finding a way to contact the others. Something Klaus would be useless in, like most things. So he couldn't help, all he could do was sit quietly, and stay out of the way. So basically the lookout without having to pretend to look for someone.

Klaus starts to come down by now, and doesn't have anything else on him. Maybe it was withdrawals, but in one second lightning struck and he realized that this might be how he dies. How his pissy brother dies. And there's nothing he can do about it.

"I'm scared." Klaus whimpers, small and pitiful.

He really never expected or wanted to die next to Luther, but it's still his brother. Luther finally turns to acknowledge his existence, and for the first time since they were kids, he doesn't seem annoyed or tired. His expression seems to almost be pitying. Which Klaus found incredibly unfair, considering Luther was more likely to end up dead if Klaus's fever dream theory is correct.

"Don't be." Luther says back in his brave boy voice. "The rescue plan will work, it has to."

Time passes and they wait in thick silence. Klaus can't take it much longer. Waiting for he and his brother to either croak or get rescued was killing him at the same rate as the draining oxygen.

This is not how he plans to die. The tension is too thick, and Klaus hates it. He doesn't want to go out with a whimper, he wants a bang. He wants fireworks. He wants to have everything he ever hid about himself to be yelled out and announced to the world.

"I'm a cat person!" Klaus finally blurts to Luther, who stares at him in confusion. "I never told anyone, but I guess someone needs to know."

Luther blinks, but sits up a bit. "Okay then. I like vanilla more than chocolate?"

Klaus snorts and keeps going, because this was fun. "I still cuddle with my Barney doll."

"The Tiffany tapes in my room are mine, not Allison's."

"When we were five, I had a crush on every Scooby-Doo villain of the week."

"I accepted cake on a day that wasn't our birthday!"

"I once accepted a potion from a witch doctor and it cured rabies!"

"I love dancing!"

"So do I!"

"Sometimes I randomly start crying in the shower!"

"I'm a bisexual!"

"I once stole a record from a public library, and the shame is tearing me apart!"

"I'm ambidextrous and I've always been scared of what Dad would do with that!"

"I kiss my own bruises!"

After awhile, they run out of secrets they were willing to pass over even when death draws near. As the hour passes and the water pours until they have to swim up to the ceiling of the sub just to keep alive for the small hope that a miracle could happen.

A single tear slides down his face as Klaus realizes that they probably won't get rescued in time. That this was it. As killer fun as cashing in some actual quality bro time was, he doesn't want them to die like this. He doesn't want his brother to die anytime soon, even if he himself is willing to waste every single day going forward, Luther has a future to live for. Which makes it so unfair that Klaus just might-

Luther's hand hesitantly reaches his face and wipes the tear away. It's a small act, but the sentiment is there. A reminder of sorts that even though he's Number One, Luther is still his brother. And even if it's only the feeling of impending death but, somewhere deep down, Klaus is happy to die being with a brother that's not a total buzzkill.

"Luther? Can I tell you one more secret?" Klaus asks, his throat sore and his voice revealing more fear than he's willing to own up to.

"What?" Luther says hazily.

"I think I came back from the de-" Klaus is cut short when a pair of feet land on the other side of the submarine's ceiling with a thump.

They look at each other in shock as a Hargreeves cutter slices through the top, water slipping through the damage. Luther quickly pushes Klaus back, unsure if he should be relieved or defensive. When a large hole is carved into the steel and pulled out, two oxygen tanks are immediately tossed to them. Neither waste anytime breathing into the air masks.

Klaus looks up, and sees Diego. Strong, maskless, and such a Mother Hen/Guardian Angel. Luther is quick to lift Klaus up into Diego's arms, and Dee rushes to carry him to the rescue sub, where Ben and Allison are waiting.

Later, after they've both dried off and were both buried in blankets by their Mama Bear siblings, Luther claims that he doesn't need anyone, not even Allison to fret after him, because he's Number One, he's above all that. Klaus isn't and he curls into Diego's arms, his head resting securely on his brother's shoulder, as he begins to doze off.

But before the need to sleep pulls him under, Klaus's tired eyes meet Luther's across the room, and despite both brothers' fatigue, an unspoken understanding is reached in a matter of milliseconds.

No one else will ever know what was shared in that submarine.

**3\. Ben**

Having Ben stick around him all the time was heartbreaking at first, but after awhile, it was just annoying. It's not that he didn't love Benny Boy, he does, just like he loves all his siblings, but every last one of them was reminder of the awful, horrible childhood memories.

And at the end of the day, he just doesn't want Ben of all people to have to witness his adventures in freedom. Case in point, when he uses all his money on pot and can't pay for snacks at a gas station, and the only thing he can think of is to give the probably LGBT cashier a blowjob as a means of bribery.

He whispers seductively in what's-his-face's ear and is pleased when the sucker flicks the sign to closed and runs off to the bathroom way too easily. Klaus smirks a bit.

"What are you planning?" Ben groans almost accusingly. Dammit, he forgot about his precious guardian angel.

"You should go out there." Klaus warns and points outside.

"What? No!" Ben exclaims, possibly offended.

Klaus groans. He doesn't remember Ben being this stubborn when he was alive. "Just go! Please! Trust me, you don't wanna know!"

"Seriously? I've seen you do horrible things in the past few months, what can you-"

"BEN! I am going to suck him off. His dick. If you wanna be there for that, that's on you!" Klaus flips his hands up, and waltzes over to the bathroom to go suck that son of a bitch off for food.

When he exits with a handful of convenience store snacks to keep him from starving for a night, Ben is standing outside the gas station and has apparently contracted PTSD. Well, if death couldn't do it, Klaus could!

"I'm sorry." Ben chokes, seemingly still stunned. "I didn't realize you were into...."

"Gas station employees?" Klaus cheekily fills in for him.

With that, the tension leaves Ben's shoulders as he starts laughing, which prompts Klaus to dazedly start laughing as well, and soon enough they were laughing together. Finally, Ben calms down enough to catch his breath and finally says. "I love you. And if I could, I would hug you."

Klaus quirks his eyebrows. "Ooooohhhhh!"

"Not like that!" Ben gags. "I bet you wish it was though." Klaus laughs in surprise, and even Ben seems shocked by his own inc*st joke, and Klaus is here for it.

Okay, having Ben around is kind of awesome.

**4\. Vanya**

  
By 2016, more often than not the nicest setting Klaus would ever go to is the pride parade. It was beautiful, glorious, UNBELIEVAB-

"Klaus!" A surprised voice shrieks and he whips around. Vanya is standing behind him, looking like a dear caught in headlights. She looks like she's about to either bolt or pass out.

"Vanya?" He hasn't seen his dear sweet baby sister since she wrote her tell-all, and to be honest, he never wanted to see her. That shit cut deep. Still, they were at Pride, this was a happy event, they were to be prideful.

LGBTQ+ Hargreeves are to be prideful.

"Is that a bi flag?" Klaus asks after analyzing her merch, just the one flag, and Vanya shrinks in on herself even further, but nods. Klaus takes a bite from his hotdog and smiles at her. "Cool. I used to celebrate as bisexual before I figured some more shit out."

Vanya seems to cool down a wee bit, but still looks cautious. "I-I didn't know you were-"

"Well! I was swooning over Leonardo _and_ Kate, what can I say?" Klaus says cheerfully. "But I didn't know you were-"

"To be honest, I didn't think anyone would care." Vanya whispers and Klaus aches inside. He really was sad that she feels the way she said she did in that book, but he was mostly pissed that Vanya made them all out to be monsters. They all had their coping issues growing up.

Maybe he and Ally should have invited her to their makeup sessions.

"Well, I would have." Klaus says softly, before catching himself and cheerfully waves his pan flag. "I am a pride mastermind!"

Vanya smiles shyly. "Pansexual?"

"It's broader than bi, so I win!" He jokes. Vanya doesn't laugh so he pulls out his non-binary flag from his belt and adds. "Plus, I love me some twosomes!”

"Wait, really?" Vanya says surprised. "Oh! I always wondered about the skirts. So... um, d-do the others say you're our sib-"

"Oh no! I prefer the wee-wee pronouns to the hoo-hahs!" Klaus clarifies for her.

"Right." Vanya says quietly. "So, I'm, uh-" She gestures to something behind her, and Klaus takes it as a cue to bow out.

"I bid you adieu, Sissy Dear."

"Bye, Klaus."

It was kind of ironic that he still had another sibling to 'come out' to when he was having a public make-out session at Pride.

**5\. Five**

With Five, it just sorta slips out, and he never really notices for a long time. It's weird having Five back after so long, but he hasn't had a hang out session with his siblings for a long time _soooooo...... _more of the same?

He just wants his money.

"I was pretty good, though, right? 'Yeah. What about my consent, bitch?'" He giggles quite happy with himself for that moment in the spotlight.

"Klaus, it doesn't matter." Five glares at him. Klaus turns to him.

"What? What? What's the big deal with this eye, anyway?"

"There is someone out there who's going to lose an eye in the next seven days. They're gonna bring about the end of life on this Earth as we know it." Five starts walking away.

Again, he just wants his money. He put on the show of his life, he does not need to deal with impending doom on top of his bust schedule.

"Yeah, can I get that 20 bucks, like, now, or what?"

"Your 20 bucks?"

"Yeah, my 20 bucks."

"The apocalypse is coming, and all you can think about is getting high?" Five looks at him like he's an idiot, and not a loyal worker, who wore a suit that belonged to his dead father, and so smelt of tea bags and hatred, and deserves to be paid, because this America. Which is a world of capitalism. Ben told him so.

"Well, I'm also quite hungry. Tummy's a-rumblin'." He makes a hungry noise with back of his throat, but smiles cheerfully.

Five stares at him incrediously and shakes his head slightly. "You're useless. You're all useless!" He snarls.

"Oh, come on! You need to lighten up, old man." Klaus says as Five walks away from him. God, Five needs to get laid more than Ben. "Hey, you know, I've just now realized why you're so uptight. "You must be horny as hell!" He laughs. "All those years by yourself. It's gotta screw with your head, being alone."

"Well, I wasn't alone." Five admits.

"Oh? Pray tell." Klaus perks up and looks at him knowingly.

"Her name was Delores. We were together for over 30 years." He says, almost softly, except he was a psycho, so that was impossible.

"Thirty years? Oh, wow!" Klaus chuckles. "God, the longest I've been with someone was I don't know, three weeks. And that's only because I was so tired of looking for a place to sleep. He did make the most fantastic osso buco, though." He turns to Five, who isn't there anymore. "Five?"

He looks around frazzled, and sees Five in a window of some taxi, waving at him like a bitch.

HIS MONEY!!!

**+2 Diego**

Holy shit, he forgot to come out to his brother. To be fair, he's into chics, but still, he has his preferences.

"His name was Dave." Klaus corrects. "We soldiered together in the A Shau Valley in the Mountain of the Crouching Beast."

"Well, Dave must have been a very special person to put up with your weird-ass shit."

XXX

"His name was Dave. He was a seventh grade English teacher. He cried at the end of Bonnie and Clyde, sucked at charades, and had two younger sisters, neither of which would be as awesome as my two sisters, but he loved them."

It's a long night of tears and hugs, and then the dust clears and it's time to start with the jokety-jokes again. Ben and Klaus start bickering, Five starts being his grumpy self, and Allison pretends she's better than this. It fills Klaus with relief and fondness.

Unfortunately, all that's shut down by Diego's attempt at humor. "I can't believe we're just now learning you like dudes." They all stare at him blankly. "What?" He asks. The siblings exchange looks.

"You didn't know that?"

"How did I know and you didn't?"

"Seriously?"

"Wait, all of you already knew?!"

"I knew he was a homosexual before he did!" Five rolls his eyes.

"Well, he's not gay." Allison mutters, extremely in tune with her brother's orientation after years updates from postcards being the only form of communication she had with Klaus for so long.

"Right, he's a bisexual." Luther adds, only to be corrected by Ben adding. "Pansexual."

"No." Vanya rolls her eyes. "At the pride parade, he said he was a nonbinary pansexual who preferred male pronouns, but that was years ago so he might not be."

They all look at her surprised.

"There are so many colors." She mutters. "But if someone's gonna be coming out today...." Vanya bites her lip and looks at Klaus, to find him nodding encouragingly. "Lesbian." She points to herself with a shaky finger.

Allison turns to Luther and tilts her head as if motioning for him to say something. He looks at her pleadingly. She sighs. "I once kissed a girl at a Halloween party when I was drunk out of my mind. I think I liked it."

Luther's eyes widen. "Oh...." He doesn't seem to know how to respond to that. "Asexual." He finally whispers.

Diego hums at all this information. "Demisexual. Look it up." Klaus's jaw drops.

Five just rolls his eyes. "My God, were orientations this complicated when we were kids?"

"Yes!"

"We were born this way!" Klaus protests. "..... -these ways!"

"I'm pretty sure I was just drunk." Allison says.

"Do you know how much research I had to put into coming to that conclusion?" Diego bites. "Demisexual! What is that?"

Sighing, Five jumps away, apparently uninterested in their conversation.

Klaus turns to his siblings. "Okay, who wants to bet on Cranky's sexuality?"

**Author's Note:**

> Don't worry about Five, in my headcanon universe, he's definitely not straight, but living in the apocalypse hasn't given him a lot of resources to figure it out himself. I read one fanfic with a Demisexual Diego, and after looked up what Demisexual means, I was like; Yes! Also, I wasn't sure if I wanted to make Allison bi or not, so I'll just leave it at a teaspoon of a, "Maybe?" and leave that up to you. As for Vanya, I really wanted her to just be a lesbian, but I wanted her scene to take place at a pride parade even more, and that would obviously have to take place before Leonard. He even hurts fanfictions that makes no mention of him.


End file.
